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Starbucks is a global coffee company founded in 1971 in Seattle, Washington, as a roaster and retailer of whole bean and ground coffee, tea and spices. Today it is the largest coffeehouse company in the world, with 20,366 stores in 61 countries. Starbucks went public on June 26, 1992 at a price of $17 per share (or $0.53 per share, adjusted for subsequent stock splits) and closed trading that first day at $21.50 per share. Starbucks Corporation's common stock is listed on NASDAQ, under the trading symbol SBUX.

News›China Insider

COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT

On this street in southern China, you can visit Starbucks Coffee - or rather, 'Sffcccks Coffee'

A "street of fakes" in Wuxi has drawn ridicule and condemnation from Chinese netizens

It looks like Starbucks from a distance, but upon closer inspection, something is very off here. Photo: Chinanews.com

A “street of fakes” has sprouted up in the southern Chinese city of Wuxi, featuring signs that flaunt modified names of famous international stores like Starbucks and Zara.

On this commercial street, located near the Wuxi East Railway Station, clothing stores Zara and H&M have morphed into “Zare” and “H&N,” American electronics company Apple is "Appla," Starbucks Coffee has become the bizarre sounding “Sffcccks Coffee" and even the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China has made an appearance – only with one of the characters of its Chinese name removed and replaced with another, rendering the name nonsensical.

All of the store signs displaying these famous names are written in fonts that make them appear similar to the real deal from a distance, and China’s netizens have quickly taken to calling the area a “street of fakes” or a “shanzai street.” Shanzai is the Putonghua word for knock-off.

“How could the people that put these signs up possibly be proud of such a thing?” one commentator wrote on Chinese news portal Wenxuecity.com. “They are completely ignorant of intellectual property rights.”

Local reports claim that the stores displaying the shanzai signs are actually all empty, and the entire street is property available for purchase by shop owners or landlords. According to reports from internet portal Sohu.com, real estate representatives for the street told reporters that the signs were “pre-made advertising images designed to create a shopping atmosphere” and appeal to prospective property buyers.

“The real estate operators in charge are engaging in misleading behaviour and should stop this infringement,” said Zhao Jia, a local lawyer interviewed by Sohu.com.

Despite this warning, copyright infringement is common in the mainland, and local stores and products have frequently copied the logos or fonts of international brands for recognition purposes. Photos of Chinese stores such as “KLG” (a chicken restaurant similar to international fast-food chain KFC) and “Sunbucks Coffee” (a coffee shop resembling Starbucks) have been virally shared on the internet for years.

take it easy. have some laugh. those who are paying a pretty penny for starbucks will know the difference....in any case, at this outlet, they might get better coffee :)

ognevodd Jan 11th 20148:46am

I don't see the problem. "SFFFCCCKS" is not a Starbucks knock-off, it's just a sign they put there to make the place appear less empty, before real tenants move in. There is no actual coffee shop, bank or Apple store at that location - just empty properties. This is similar to how designers fill in their designs with random text - just to showcase the design to the customer.

swami.vas Jan 11th 201411:48am

"Starbung" in Bangkok and “Sffcccks Coffee" in Wenxuecity in China - interesting coffee flavours!
One wonders why these fakers did not think of names like Starbeans, Starsmell, Stararoma, and so on! Thank God, at least they did not think of replacing the letter 'b' in Starbucks with letter 'f'!

olivia.lim.9212 Jan 11th 201410:42pm

Well, they can fake the Apple Store in China, these are small trade only

Do you understand the word "likeness?" You can't make a black and copper battery and call it durabell either, because simulating the company's logo or brand design i.e. likeness is a copyright infringement even if its not exactly the same.